"Good morning!" she cried. "I wonder if you are headed for that cotton-patch?"
He answered that he was, and she laughed.
"Not before you have your breakfast," she commanded. "That is against the rules. It will be ready soon. Wait for me. I'm coming right down."
He went to the veranda2 and saw her descending3. When she came out into the full light from the shadowy house he remarked the lines of care in her face, and they threw a damper on his spirits.
"How did you rest?" she asked.
"Very well," he returned, "but I am afraid that you did not."
She was silent, her head downcast, and he wondered over the impulse that had emboldened4 him to make such a personal comment. He was about to beg her pardon, when she raised her face and looked at him confidingly5.
"Oh, I know I show it, Mr. Brown," she exclaimed, "but I can't help it. I've been half crazy all night long. I slept only a few minutes at a time, and even in my sleep my fears clung to me. It is my brothers. I have worried over them before, but never like this. From what I heard yesterday the spree they are on is the worst they ever had. They were with their vilest6 associates, moonshiners and gamblers, over at Carlin, drinking harder than ever before."
Here Zilla came to the front door. Catching7 her mistress's eye, she cried out, excitedly: "Young miss, I see er hoss en' buggy 'way down de road. It got two mens in it. Looks ter me like de boys. Dey is whippin' de hoss powerful en' ercomin' fast."
Ascending8 the veranda steps, Mary looked down the main road toward Carlin. "Yes, it is my brothers," she said, frowning. "Why they are hurrying so I can't make out. The horse looks as if it is about to drop."
She said no more, but hastened to the front gate, where she stood, her tense hands on the latch9, waiting for the vehicle to arrive. In a moment a panting, foaming10 bay horse was reined11 in at the gate and the two young men sprang down from a ramshackle buggy.
"Where is father?" Kenneth, the older, a tall, dark young man, asked, hurriedly.
"He is in the library, I think," his sister answered, "Kensy, what is the matter?"
"Oh, don't ask me!" he cried, impatiently, a wild look in his eyes. "Keep the horse there ready, Martin. But never mind. What's the use? It is all in. We'll have to leave the main road, anyway. We must skip for the mountains."
"Oh, brother, brother Kensy, what is it?" Mary cried, in sheer terror, as she clutched his arm.
Drawing it from her impatiently, even roughly, he cried out to Zilla: "Call father! Hurry! No, I'll find him."
"Oh, Martin, Martin, what is it?" and Mary turned to her younger brother, who was short, rather frail-looking, and had blue eyes and reddish hair.
"Nothing, nothing," he said, his glance following Kenneth into the house. "Don't ask me, sis. It is all right."
"But I know something has gone wrong!" Mary cried. "You and Kensy look it; you can't hide it. What is it?"
He shrugged13 his shoulders, lifted his brows, and then said, reluctantly: "Well, we got in a little scrape, that's all, and had to make a break to get away. The sheriff and a deputy are after us."
"After you! after you!" Mary gasped14. "What have you done?"
Martin hesitated sullenly15, his eyes on the grass.
"Tell yo' sister de trufe, boy," Aunt Zilla suddenly broke in. "Be ershamed er yo'se'f, keepin' 'er awake all night wid worry. Tell 'er what's de matter. Don't yer see she's half 'stracted over yo-all's doin's?"
"Oh, well," he responded, "it was a little shooting-scrape. Ken12 and Tobe Keith had a dispute in Gardener's pool-room about an hour ago. Tobe drew a knife. Some say he didn't, but I saw it; I'm sure I saw it. I grabbed him around the waist, and—well, Ken was a little full and had a gun, and while I and Tobe were wrestling he fired."
"And killed him!" Mary cried. "Oh God, have mercy!"
"No, no, don't be a fool, sis! Please don't! He was just wounded slightly, that's all."
"But why did you run away, then?" Mary's pale lips shook as the words dropped from them.
"Because," he frowned—"because some of the mountain boys advised us to, and Sheriff Frazier lived around the corner and had heard the shots. This horse and buggy was loaned to us by Steve Pinkney. He'll be here after them. Zilla, feed and water the horse, please. We've got to get away in the mountains till—till we find out how Keith is."
Mary started to say something, but choked up. She put her arm about her brother's neck, but he gently took it down.
"Don't make it worse than it is, sis dear," he faltered16. "We are in trouble, big trouble, this time, but we hardly knew what we were doing. If the fellow lives, we will—"
"If he lives! My God! if he lives!" Mary moaned.
Her father and her older brother were coming out on the veranda now. The old gentleman had a book and manuscript under his handless arm. Charles noted17 that he was not even pale, though a certain expression of irritation18 rested on his patrician19 features.
"Yes, leave the horse," he was saying. "Get into the mountains. As you say, you know a good hiding-place. I'll remember the directions to it, and we'll get food to you somehow or other. It may not be serious. The scoundrel was attacking you with a knife, you think?"
"Martin thought so," Kenneth answered, "but I'm not sure of it now. Steve Pinkney says Martin was mistaken, and that is why he advised us to run. I was drinking. My nerves are all shattered. I got mad when I saw Keith and Martin struggling, and fired before I thought. I'm sorry, but if is too late now. We must get away."
"Yes, and before somebody sees you here," Rowland said. "Are you hungry?"
"Yes, but we can't wait," Kenneth answered. "Come on, Martin."
Mary had run to her older brother. She held out her arms; she was sobbing20 in her white fluttering throat. He took her into his embrace, drew her bare head to his shoulder, and stroked her hair.
"We are bad boys, sis dear," he said, tenderly. "We have not treated you right; no one knows that better than Martin and I, and we are getting paid for it. I hope Keith won't die. God knows I do! I really haven't anything against him. It was just a dispute over a game of poker21. He was mad and so was I. Good-by. We must go. They will not find us where we are going."
"Hurry!" she gasped, as she slid from his arms. "Hurry!"
Side by side the two boys hastened toward the barn. The little group saw them pass through the stable-yard, climb over the fence, and vanish in the thicket22 which was the border of the vast forest that reached out, dank and trackless, into the mountains toward the west.
With a little sigh of despair, Mary sank down on the lowest step of the veranda. Her father looked at her for a moment with a childlike stare of perplexity, and then said:
"Come, come, don't act that way! It won't do any good."
"Come in de house, missie," Aunt Zilla said, gently, and as soothingly23 as a mother to an ill child. "Dem boys is gwine ter give de sheriff de slip en' dat man will pull thoo. Come on. Yo' breakfust is gittin' cold. Mr. Brown wants ter git ter his wuk in de cotton."
To his surprise, Charles saw Mary sit more erect24. It was as if by a superhuman effort she had shaken herself temporarily free from the overpowering disaster.
"Yes, you must have your breakfast," she said, smiling faintly at Charles. "Come, let's go to the dining-room."
At the table he found himself admiring the self-control of both Mary and her father. Charles noted that Mary ate but little, and that little she seemed to take without relish25. Rowland had his manuscript at his side at the table, and once he consulted it, as if his mind had reverted26 to something he had been interested in before the arrival of his sons.
"I am sorry that I did not have the opportunity to present my boys to you," he remarked once. "I told Kenneth who you were and assured him that you had given us evidence of your friendly spirit. He is glad that you have come to help us out with the work. One might not think so from his present conduct, but he hates to see his sister do manual labor27 in the field."
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1
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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emboldened
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| v.鼓励，使有胆量( embolden的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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confidingly
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| adv.信任地 | |
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vilest
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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7
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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latch
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| n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁 | |
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foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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reined
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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25
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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